1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to solid state lamps and bulbs and in particular to efficient and reliable light emitting diode (LED) based lamps having active elements to assist in dissipating heat from the lamps and bulbs during operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Incandescent or filament-based lamps or bulbs are commonly used as light sources for both residential and commercial facilities. However, such lamps are highly inefficient light sources, with as much as 95% of the input energy lost, primarily in the form of heat or infrared energy. One common alternative to incandescent lamps, so-called compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), are more effective at converting electricity into light but require the use of toxic materials which, along with its various compounds, can cause both chronic and acute poisoning and can lead to environmental pollution. One solution for improving the efficiency of lamps or bulbs is to use solid state devices such as light emitting diodes (LED or LEDs), rather than metal filaments, to produce light.
Light emitting diodes generally comprise one or more active layers of semiconductor material sandwiched between oppositely doped layers. When a bias is applied across the doped layers, holes and electrons are injected into the active layer where they recombine to generate light. Light is emitted from the active layer and from various surfaces of the LED.
In order to use an LED chip in a circuit or other like arrangement, it is known to enclose an LED chip in a package to provide environmental and/or mechanical protection, color selection, light focusing and the like. An LED package also includes electrical leads, contacts or traces for electrically connecting the LED package to an external circuit. In a typical LED package 10 illustrated in FIG. 1, a single LED chip 12 is mounted on a reflective cup 13 by means of a solder bond or conductive epoxy. One or more wire bonds 11 connect the ohmic contacts of the LED chip 12 to leads 15A and/or 15B, which may be attached to or integral with the reflective cup 13. The reflective cup may be filled with an encapsulant material 16 which may contain a wavelength conversion material such as a phosphor. Light emitted by the LED at a first wavelength may be absorbed by the phosphor, which may responsively emit light at a second wavelength. The entire assembly is then encapsulated in a clear protective resin 14, which may be molded in the shape of a lens to collimate the light emitted from the LED chip 12. While the reflective cup 13 may direct light in an upward direction, optical losses may occur when the light is reflected (i.e. some light may be absorbed by the reflective cup due to the less than 100% reflectivity of practical reflector surfaces). In addition, heat retention may be an issue for a package such as the package 10 shown in FIG. 1a, since it may be difficult to extract heat through the leads 15A, 15B.
A conventional LED package 20 illustrated in FIG. 2 may be more suited for high power operations which may generate more heat. In the LED package 20, one or more LED chips 22 are mounted onto a carrier such as a printed circuit board (PCB) carrier, substrate or submount 23. A metal reflector 24 mounted on the submount 23 surrounds the LED chip(s) 22 and reflects light emitted by the LED chips 22 away from the package 20. The reflector 24 also provides mechanical protection to the LED chips 22. One or more wirebond connections 27 are made between ohmic contacts on the LED chips 22 and electrical traces 25A, 25B on the submount 23. The mounted LED chips 22 are then covered with an encapsulant 26, which may provide environmental and mechanical protection to the chips while also acting as a lens. The metal reflector 24 is typically attached to the carrier by means of a solder or epoxy bond.
LED chips, such as those found in the LED package 20 of FIG. 2 can be coated by conversion material comprising one or more phosphors, with the phosphors absorbing at least some of the LED light. The LED chip can emit a different wavelength of light such that it emits a combination of light from the LED and the phosphor. The LED chip(s) can be coated with a phosphor using many different methods, with one suitable method being described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/656,759 and 11/899,790, both to Chitnis et al. and both entitled “Wafer Level Phosphor Coating Method and Devices Fabricated Utilizing Method”. Alternatively, the LEDs can be coated using other methods such as electrophoretic deposition (EPD), with a suitable EPD method described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/473,089 to Tarsa et al. entitled “Close Loop Electrophoretic Deposition of Semiconductor Devices”.
LED chips which have a conversion material in close proximity or as a direct coating have been used in a variety of different packages, but experience some limitations based on the structure of the devices. When the phosphor material is on or in close proximity to the LED epitaxial layers (and in some instances comprises a conformal coat over the LED), the phosphor can be subjected directly to heat generated by the chip which can cause the temperature of the phosphor material to increase. Further, in such cases the phosphor can be subjected to very high concentrations or flux of incident light from the LED. Since the conversion process is in general not 100% efficient, excess heat is produced in the phosphor layer in proportion to the incident light flux. In compact phosphor layers close to the LED chip, this can lead to substantial temperature increases in the phosphor layer as large quantities of heat are generated in small areas. This temperature increase can be exacerbated when phosphor particles are embedded in low thermal conductivity material such as silicone which does not provide an effective dissipation path for the heat generated within the phosphor particles. Such elevated operating temperatures can cause degradation of the phosphor and surrounding materials over time, as well as a reduction in phosphor conversion efficiency and a shift in conversion color.
Lamps have also been developed utilizing solid state light sources, such as LEDs, in combination with a conversion material that is separated from or remote to the LEDs. Such arrangements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,350,041 to Tarsa et al., entitled “High Output Radial Dispersing Lamp Using a Solid State Light Source.” The lamps described in this patent can comprise a solid state light source that transmits light through a separator to a disperser having a phosphor. The disperser can disperse the light in a desired pattern and/or changes its color by converting at least some of the light to a different wavelength through a phosphor or other conversion material. In some embodiments the separator spaces the light source a sufficient distance from the disperser such that heat from the light source will not transfer to the disperser when the light source is carrying elevated currents necessary for room illumination. Additional remote phosphor techniques are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,614,759 to Negley et al., entitled “Lighting Device.”
One potential disadvantage of lamps incorporating remote phosphors is that they can have undesirable visual or aesthetic characteristics. When the lamps are not generating light the lamp can have a surface color that is different from the typical white or clear appearance of the standard Edison bulb. In some instances the lamp can have a yellow or orange appearance, primarily resulting from the phosphor conversion material. This appearance can be considered undesirable for many applications where it can cause aesthetic issues with the surrounding architectural elements when the light is not illuminated. This can have a negative impact on the overall consumer acceptance of these types of lamps.
Further, compared to conformal or adjacent phosphor arrangements where heat generated in the phosphor layer during the conversion process may be conducted or dissipated via the nearby chip or substrate surfaces, remote phosphor arrangements can be subject to inadequate thermally conductive heat dissipation paths. Without an effective heat dissipation pathway, thermally isolated remote phosphors may suffer from elevated operating temperatures that in some instances can be even higher than the temperature in comparable conformal coated layers. This can offset some or all of the benefit achieved by placing the phosphor remotely with respect to the chip. Stated differently, remote phosphor placement relative to the LED chip can reduce or eliminate direct heating of the phosphor layer due to heat generated within the LED chip during operation, but the resulting phosphor temperature decrease may be offset in part or entirely due to heat generated in the phosphor layer itself during the light conversion process and lack of a suitable thermal path to dissipate this generated heat.
Another issue affecting the implementation and acceptance of lamps utilizing solid state light sources relates to the nature of the light emitted by the light source itself. In order to fabricate efficient lamps or bulbs based on LED light sources (and associated conversion layers), it is typically desirable to place the LED chips or packages in a co-planar arrangement. This facilitates manufacture and can reduce manufacturing costs by allowing the use of conventional production equipment and processes. However, co-planar arrangements of LED chips typically produce a forward directed light intensity profile (e.g., a Lambertian profile). Such beam profiles are generally not desired in applications where the solid-state lamp or bulb is intended to replace a conventional lamp such as a traditional incandescent bulb, which has a much more omni-directional beam pattern. While it is possible to mount the LED light sources or packages in a three-dimensional arrangement, such arrangements are generally difficult and expensive to fabricate.
As mentioned, lamps having LED chips with a conversion material in close proximity or as a direct coating have, as well as remote conversion materials can suffer from increased temperature, particularly at high current operation. The LED chips can also generate heat and can suffer from the detrimental effects of heat build-up. Lamps can comprise heat sinks to draw heat away from the LED chips and/or conversion material, but even these lamps can suffer from inadequate heat dissipation. Good heat dissipation with well controlled LED chip junction temperature presents a unique challenge for solid state lighting solutions in comparison with traditional incandescent and fluorescent lighting. Current lamp technologies almost exclusively use pure natural convection to dissipate the lamp. It is often the case that the convective heat dissipation into the ambient air can be the biggest thermal dissipation bottleneck of the luminaire system. This can be especially true for smaller luminaires with a limited form factor where the size of the heat sink is limited, such as with A-bulb replacement. The high convective thermal resistance results at least partially from weak natural convection where heat is carried away only by the buoyancy flow of the ambient air. The buoyancy flow is typically very slow, especially for small sized objects.